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It’s Still the Same Old Story: Isolationism and Trump
From time to time, I reflect back on America’s involvement in WWII. Raging across Europe and Northern Africa, Hitler’s Nazi forces were making a mockery of the idea that a treaty would assuage the fanatical German leader. It all seems like some distant memory for some or perhaps a trailer for a new movie ready for a 3D cinema near you.
But really, it is quite black and white. Literally. The film Casablanca comes to the forefront when I considerate as a clarion call for America to wake up from its slumber and realize that millions of lives had been and would be lost without our intervention. I spent many years teaching the subtle (and not so subtle) aspects of the film; however, today one particular question keeps running through my mind.
A jaded businessman, Signor Ferrari asks Rick Blaine, the embodiment of America’s idea that one does not stick one’s neck out for anyone: Ferrari asks:
“My dear Rick, when will you realize that in this world today isolationism is no longer a practical policy?”
Rick Blaine’s response then was that the problems of the world are not his concern. He is a businessman. Of course, we know (or should know) how the film ends: Blaine and company decide that the self-centered problems of “three little people don’t add up to a hill of beans in this crazy…
